A.Word.A.Day--girl Friday

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Oct 18, 2019

This week’s theme
Words coined after days of the week

This week’s words
Friday face
Sunday punch
blue Monday
Sunday driver
girl Friday

Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell in
His Girl Friday (1940)

Image: Amazon

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

girl Friday

PRONUNCIATION:

(guhrl FRY-day)

MEANING:

noun: A female assistant, especially in an office, who does a wide variety of duties.

ETYMOLOGY:

Patterned after man Friday in Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). Earliest documented use: 1928.

USAGE:

“What a glum little thing she is, pasty, with dark hair scraped back in a most unbecoming fashion. She seemed larger when I’d interviewed her -- more presence, more spark. ‘I’m looking for a girl Friday,’ I’d said, and she’d replied, ‘Well, I’m a Friday kind of girl.’”
Sandra Ireland; Bone Deep; Gallery Books; 2019.

See more usage examples of girl Friday in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

You know full well as I do the value of sisters' affections: There is nothing like it in this world. -Charlotte Bronte, novelist and poet (1816-1855)

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